Corporate Strategy
Rebecca Whitnah
BusM 361 Section 1
November 29, 2005
Agenda
• Definition of corporate strategy
• How corporate strategy can be used in your
organization
• Benefits of corporate strategy
• Critical factors in corporate strategy
• Importance and implementation of
corporate strategy
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know where I’m going!
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go!!
-
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1872
To be a successful company, a planning process should be
initiated for making day-to-day decisions and ultimately
deciding which direction the company should go
What is Corporate Strategy?
• Process by which members of an organization
envision its future and develop the necessary
procedures and operations to achieve that future
(Goodstein, 3)
How can corporate strategy be used
in your organization?
1. Provides a plan
2. Establishes a pattern
of actions
How can corporate strategy be used
in your organization?
3. Establishes position
4. Incorporates
perspective
• (Henry Mintzberg)
What are the benefits of strategic
planning?
• Provides framework for action
– Mind-sets of employees and organization
• Enables organization to share a vision and a
belief that the vision can be fulfilled
– Energy comes to employees
What are the benefits of strategic
planning, part II?
• Evaluate your competitors & adjust to
current events
– Annual evaluations
• Motivate & encourage managers
Six Critical Strategic Factors
STRATEGY IS….
1. A coherent, unifying, and integrative
pattern of decisions
2. An establishment of an organization’s
long-term objectives, plans, and allocation
of resources
3. A definition of an organization’s
competitive domain
Six Critical Strategic Factors, Part II
STRATEGY IS…
4. A response to internal strengths &
weaknesses and external threats &
opportunities
5. Developing differentiating tasks and roles
at all functional levels
6. Identifying the economic factors the
organization will contribute to stakeholders
(Goodstein, Nolan, Pfeiffer 3)
Importance of Senior Management
Two decisions for organizations:
1. Strategic decisions
2. Strategically driven decisions
•
•
Senior management needs to be involved
in both
Must be committed to implement strategy
How can you implement strategy?
Focus on a single “driving force”
• Products offered
• Market needs
• Technology
• Production Capability
• Method of Sale
• Method of Distribution
Additional types of driving forces…
• Natural resources
• Size/growth
• Return/profit
(Kepner & Tregoe)
Questions to consider for your
company’s corporate strategy
1. Is the current strategy implicit or explicit?
2. What is happening in the larger, social,
and educational environments?
3. What are our growth, size, and
profitability goals?
4. In which markets will we compete?
5. In which businesses & geographic areas?
To strategically succeed your company
needs to know…
• Where you are going
-mission statement, specific goals
• What is the environment
• How do you get there
CASE STUDY: FedEx
What should your company bring to the table?
• Focus on company
• Consider core competencies
– Don’t limit to just core competencies
CASE STUDY: FedEx
• Core competencies: package routing &
delivery
• Grew out of technology & skills
- bar-codes
- wireless communication
CASE STUDY: FedEx Conclusion
“Whole package” – those things that can’t be
reproduced
•
•
•
•
Patented products
Strong brands & reputations
Relationships w/suppliers & customers
Position in industry
Exercise
• Break into groups of 4 -5
• List 4 strengths of your company & 4 weaknesses
• Applying those strengths & weaknesses you listed,
answer the following questions:
• Where is your company going?
• Who are your competitors & your environment?
• How are you going fortify your weaknesses?
Summary
• Corporate strategy is a process where
members envision long-term goals for an
organization
• Corporate strategy should include all
members of the organization
• In order for strategic success, each
individual needs to be committed to the
objectives…this is a direct result from a
committed senior management team
Summary continued
• A main benefit for implementing corporate
strategy is an increased competitive
advantage in all functional levels of
business
• Strategic planning should consider where
the company is going, the company’s
environment, and how the company is going
to attain its goals
Suggested Reading
• Harvard Management Update, Vol. 5, #1, January 2000
• Applied Strategic Planning, Leonard Goodstein, Timothy
Nolan, and J. William Pfeiffer, 1993, pp. 1, 3-5
• Strategy: Definitions and Meanings, Fred Nickols,
http://home.att.net/~nickols/strategy_definition.htm, 2000
• Top Management Strategy, Benjamin Tregoe & John
Zimmerman, pp. 7
• The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Henry Mintzberg,
1997, pp. 3